Grieving over Sabo is not just us missing his presence, but also his booksmart brain. It's been years, but I absolutely missed his booksmart presence between all of these muscle brains.
All of us are muscle brains, but Luffy and Ace are purely muscle brains.
Living with two feral boys that barely see books or even touch and read one is hard to work with during the Education Session. And because of that, I'm the one that takes the role of educator for them. Thankfully, I managed to learn how to write the World letters in just a few months after we met Sabo, so now I can write shits while teaching.
"Alright you two. Quiz time. Tell me the name of the second half of the Grand Line." I start as I write down 'Grand Line: 1. Paradise, 2. …' on the board using chalk.
"Uhh… Knew Word?" Ace tries questioningly.
"Oh, oh! I know! Is it Meow Worm?" Luffy raises his hand confidently.
"No. You both are wrong." I bluntly replied in frustration, "It's 'New World'! Get it right, you two! This is a very important lesson for our piracy days!" I scold them, slamming my hand on the board while Ace rolls his eyes and Luffy is picking his nose.
"Ugh, give me a break. We'll figure it out by ourselves later anyway!" Ace protests as he scowls and puts his pencil under his nose.
I groan as I massage the bridge of my nose. "Piracy without preparation is suicide, you idiots. We need to be prepared so none of us die before we know what freedom feels like." I tell him with a shake of my head before turning back to the board, "Okay, next question. Why is the first half of the Grand Line called 'Paradise'?"
"...because compared to the New World, 'Paradise' is tamer." Ace answers, finally taking this seriously.
"Correct. Good job, Ace." I praise him with a smile as I write down the answer. "Now, this one is for Luffy, because you haven't answered correctly yet. What's gramps' rank in the Marine?" I ask as I write down the question with a small doodle of gramps while Luffy seems to panic a bit.
"Oh! Umm… I forgot. Uhh… is it something-admiral?" Luffy answers unsurely.
"Almost, but good job Luffy. His rank is Vice-Admiral; third highest of the ranks." I smile as I write down the answer and Luffy cheers out, "there are two more ranks above it: Fleet Admiral, and Admirals. But don't be fooled, because gramps is as strong as the Fleet Admiral and even on par with the late Pirate King."
"Really? But why didn't he get promoted to Admiral?" Ace asks in confusion.
"Who knows? Maybe because he doesn't wanna be some loyal dog of the World Nobles?" I reply with a shrug, "you just have to ask him yourself, if you survive his ordeals." I add and laugh when the boys get pale.
"Okay, another one before we finished today's lesson. Who are the Four Emperors?" I ask, writing down the question.
This time, Luffy raises his hand first with a serious look on his face.
"Shanks is one of them!" He answers enthusiastically.
"Shanks again…" Ace sighs with a roll of his eyes.
"Good job, Luffy. But there are still 3 more of them." I point out with an amused smirk.
"Umm… Uhhh, something about Whitebear? Uhhh, Layloo? And Big Mom?" Luffy tries, and I snicker a bit.
"Well you got Big Mom right, at least. But the other two aren't. Pretty close though." I write down 'Big Mom' under 'Shanks', "Ace? Wanna answer the other two?"
"...Whitebeard and Kaido?"
"Yeap! Good job, you two." I write down the remaining two as the boys high-fived in celebration. "Right, Four Emperors is one of The Three Great Powers. The other two are Marine Headquarters and the Seven Warlords of the Sea. The balance of these three is what maintains world peace."
"What's the Seven Warlords again?"
"They're pirates that Marines recruited to help them if they need their power to deal with the Four Emperors, and they have to obey that one order. In exchange, they're allowed to do whatever they want with no real consequences." I explain as I write it down, "they can commit genocide, invade a country, do black market businesses, et cetera. And the Marines will turn a blind eye on such atrocities."
"That's bad, right?" Luffy asks with a tilt of his head. So cute.
"Yes, many civilians can suffer under such things. All for their own egotistical greed." I nod, "They're still pirates, after all."
"Alright, lesson's over for today. I hope you two managed to write it down this time…" I narrow my eyes in suspicion as I look at their notes, which are still as clean as new.
"Pfft, we don't need to write them down. We'll remember it. Eventually." Ace comments as he stands and stretches out.
"Thinking makes my head hurt! And I'm hungry!" Luffy exclaims out with his arms in the air.
I can only let out an exasperated sigh as the boys quickly run off into the forest, with me running after them a second later.
Well, I suppose as long as they can remember the basics of it, they'll be okay. They're both muscle heads, after all. They will focus on what they can deal with their fists, not their brain. I still need to teach them about Haki, but I'm sure those muscle heads will finally take interest.
Hopefully, that can change Ace's fate a little so he'll finally train his Haoshoku Haki later in the future, and the other two Hakis too.
Hopefully.
XXX
"WAIT, LUFFY, ACE! COME BACK HERE AND TRAIN YOUR HAKI!" I yell out as I run after them, kicking and breaking a tree with Buso-induced legs before jumping at them with Buso-induced fist, "TINJU CINTA!"
Ace quickly takes a sidestep but Luffy isn't that lucky as my fist lands on his head, punching him towards the trees and breaking them up. I stop as I just sighed exasperatedly when Luffy screeches out in pain and Ace warily approaches me from behind. Sensing him, I quickly give him a Buso-induced roundhouse kick right into his side, making him fly into the same direction as Luffy.
"Stop skipping out your training! Gramps only come thrice a year, so I'm here as his substitute for the rest of the year. Ace only has less than a year now before he sets sail, and both of you still barely got the hang of the two Hakis completely." I growl in annoyance as Ace sits back up, letting pieces of wood fall from him and I see that he managed to shield his side with Buso before the dark coat with orange tint fades away. I give him a proud smile and a nod at that, and he grins in return.
"Well, at least Ace got it, but Luffy! You need to hurry up and get the hang of it! You wanna get stronger, don't you?" I tell him with my hands on my hips as he sits up with a big bump on his head, but somehow it flickers in and out of black coloring and I raise my brows, impressed. "Hoo, you're finally getting the hang of it too! Good job, both of you." I praise with a grin before turning it into a frown.
"Still, you two really need to get the hang of Kenbun. It's literally easier to learn compared to Buso." I huff before I hum in thought, "Hmm, then again, you guys are already good at detecting your surroundings, thanks to gramps from throwing you guys into the woods filled with wild animals..." I point out softly and both boys quickly nod in agreement, but I quickly shake my head, much to their dread. "No, raw instinct and trained observations are two different things. Two may overlap, but they're not the same." I conclude and the boys groan as a result.
"C'mon Eris! Give us a break! You drove us nuts even more compared to gramps!" Ace protests with a scowl, while rubbing on his side I just kicked.
"Not when your lives are on the line." I argue back firmly, "Sure, we'll start sailing in East Blue first, which is famed for being the weakest of the Four Blues, but that doesn't mean you guys can follow that title. Remember, both of your fathers are from East Blue, but they're infamously strong figures. Not to mention gramps' also strong. He's not the 'Hero of the Marines' for nothing."
While Luffy is being Luffy (aka only serious when it comes to becoming stronger and more adventures ahead), Ace is silent at the mention of his biological dad. He's not angry or annoyed, but he's just thinking. After having that talk about Roger being what the world sees him to be with Rayleigh a while ago, he's been silent and having that faraway look in his gray eyes.
"...Is my old man really that strong?"
I smile softly at that question, especially at the 'my old man' part.
"Obviously. He's not the Pirate King, the so-called 'Demon' by the World for nothing. Heck, not even gramps could even capture his ass! He just turned himself up because he was dying." I tell him as I ruffle his hair, "don't underestimate your inhumanly-strong, human old man." I finish with a grin, while he grumbles that 'he's older'. Probably because I ruffled his hair like I usually do to Luffy. Oh well.
"Alright, training's over for now. Let's go grab dinner." At the mention of dinner, Luffy immediately perks up and hops on his feet.
"Wahoo! Dinner! Let's go eat crocs meat!" Luffy cheers out as he immediately takes off. I shake my head in endearment and offer my open palm to Ace, who's still on the ground. He looks at it before grabbing it as I help him up back to his feet.
"Let's go before Luffy gets eaten by the crocs, or even drowning." I grin deviously and Ace laughs at that before we quickly run after Luffy.
XXX
I put on my blindfold and activate my Kenbun, easily scanning my surroundings and detecting Ace and Luffy's life auras (plus Takao and Flame nearby). I grin smugly, "Come get me."
And they did.
Left kick from Ace to my chest. Right rubbery punch from Luffy to my face.
I immediately sidestep to the right from Ace's kick and duck down from Luffy's punch, covering my open right palm with Buso and giving Luffy a heel-palm strike straight to his chin, staggering him.
Right punch from Ace to the back of my head.
I immediately cover my head with Buso as Ace's Buso-induced fist lands, but mine is stronger that it slightly hurts him instead. I quickly turned around and grabbed him by his shirt collar before throwing him down hard, winded him up.
Rubbery punch from Luffy on my right.
Covering my arm with Buso, I parry his incoming punch to the side before grabbing his stretched arm and pulling him. He screams out in surprise as I turn to throw him down to Ace that's still on the ground, which winded Luffy up and Ace again.
"Is that all? C'mon, you guys are better than this." I taunt with a smirk, which makes Ace growls at me before lunging at me, but I can easily sidestep and he crashes into the tree as I turn to Luffy, "Don't forget lesson #1 about Kenbun: never show your intentions so openly, or you'll be read easily like an ABC book." I clarify calmly before clapping my hands together, "that's enough for now. We'll continue after a 5 minutes break." I tell them as I untie my blindfold and wince visibly when I open my eyes. Argh! The sun! Too bright!
"Nngh damn it! I lost again!" Luffy whines out with a pout. So cute.
"I'll beat you next time." Ace growls as he approaches us with a scowl.
"You said that every time we finished the first, the second, and the third sessions too." I tease him and he narrows his eyes at me before grinning and playfully pulling me into a headlock.
"Oh yeah? You wanna bet this time?" He challenges me and I smirk in return.
"1 million Berry and I'm in."
"Deal."
So anyway, I got 2 million Berries by the end of the day. It was good business.
Ace, on the other hand, is regretting his decision on betting with me, while Luffy is just excited for me to treat him to some ramen tomorrow.
All in all, the day went on nicely and peacefully. It's a pretty nice day, if you ask me.
Bidding a goodnight to both boys in their respective 'countries', I slip off into the forest toward Gray Terminal, with Takao following along in the air. I have my old mask in hand and my spear in the other, and as I get closer to Gray Terminal, I wear my mask and hop on my spear to float over the ridiculously tall wall. With Sabo's old house burning in my memory, we both start to search for it.
It didn't take long, as I found it in just 5 minutes.
Looking at the house in disgust, I command Deimos to detach from the staff and to break into the house. I close my eyes as Deimos' vision fills up the darkness, where it breaks in through the window. Based on its vision and detection, it alarms the people nearby, but thankfully there are only 2 people on the floor.
Killing them isn't the main focus, so I'll just injure them.
Easily finding them, stabbing them in their thighs and letting them scream in pain, which attracts more attention. Good. Attract more until Outlook III is out. He's my main target.
Stabbing more of the house servants, until my target is finally out. He looks older and his hair is graying out, but that's the least of my concern.
Smiling, I talk to him through Deimos.
{"It's been awhile, Outlook III. I see that you're doing well."} I greet him gleefully, {"I hope you didn't forget my promise to you to hunt you down after you took Sabo away from us."}
Hearing that, he widens his eyes and his face pales up. I grin wider.
Years of having Deimos and Phobos, I learn more and more on how to use them. Even during my 2 years training with gramps, I always have them by my side. Although I never really use them for anything else but for gathering information in secret by making them as small as a needle, because their association with 'Garu' will reveal my secret in the lion's den. That would be stupid.
And listening in on the marines is really fun. Information about things that happened at the time, future plans that might take place later, or discreet information that will cause uproar to the world if it went out. I wrote them all in my journal for future purposes, because I need to prepare for whatever the Marines have in store in the future.
But enough about that, I need to focus back on the matter at hand.
{"Today is the anniversary of you stealing him from us. I hope you're prepared to meet Ȃ̶̫̱̲̭̬ť̴̤̈́̉̎h̷̨̤͈̣̳͓͈͉̩̐̆̐̍͗̏͂̈́̀ã̵̢̡̹͉̣̠̇o̷͈̬͒̑̀̕̕t̶̨̝̳̱͇̹̜̪͛̓̕̕h̴̢̹̅̌̎̈́̾͌̆l̷̥̟̝͈̰̐͆̃'̷̖͔͍̪̩̺͑̏̍͂̐̆̅͌͝x̴̢̧̝̹̫̥̥̣̤͚̏̌͂̈́̿̈́́̇̕͠ͅͅe̷̙͉͉̯̹̞̩̠̹̩̍̿̀͐͜l̸̲̒̌͋̽̃͘ earlier."} I tell him as I laugh a bit, {"but don't worry. I will take my time with you until I'm satisfied, so you can relax."}
I've heard news about the Revolutionary Army and their so-called 'No. 2'. Not much is known about this figure or even any picture yet, but if I'm not mistaken, that's gotta be Sabo. It has to be.
For that, I've come to fulfill my promise to end the life of Outlook III, for the celebration of Sabo's life.
I can see him screaming out as he runs off, but I quickly flick my finger and slash his calf. He falls to the floor and this time Didit shows up, screaming when she sees her husband and the servants are all on the floor and bleeding out.
{"Shut up."} I spat before I stabbed her in the chest and pulled out, letting her fall to the floor with a thump as I turned back to Outlook III, {"now, where were we?"}
I played around with him for an hour until I eventually got bored of him. I hum in thoughts. Should I kill him or leave him dying? I can't risk him recovering and hunting us, but maybe I can cripple him. Maybe slice his vocal cords? Or cut off his legs?
{"Choose. Your voice, or your legs?"} I ask, and I guess the bastard lost too much blood to answer properly that he can only whimper in pain and softly ask for forgiveness, but I ignore him. {"Or maybe not. I'll leave you dying in your own pool of blood, just like you did to Sabo. How's that sound? Yeah, sounds pretty good to me. Bye, see you in hell."} And just like that, I command Deimos to come back and we go back home.
Getting near the shack, I see Ace is leaning on a tree nearby, as if waiting for me.
I calmly walk past him, but he quickly grabs my arm.
"Where did you go and what did you do?" Ace asks calmly as he lets my arm go.
"I did what I said I would do." I answer, not looking at him but Ace knows what I meant.
"...Did you kill him? Or anyone?"
"I killed the mother, and I left the father and the servants bleeding out. I leave his adoptive brother alone."
It's no secret to Ace and Luffy that I'm Garu, and none of them really care. They're just amazed that I managed to gain myself a really high bounty and seemed proud because I killed 2 Celestial Dragons. Gramps and Dadan also knew, and they both were conflicted and stayed quiet most of the time about it.
We both are quiet before he gives me a pat on the head, as if reassuring me to not think too hard about it.
"Go to sleep with Luffy. Or do you want me to join...?" I nod as I gently hold onto his ring and pinky fingers. We both enter Luffy's place. He's fast asleep with Flame and Takao is making himself comfortable in his fur, snuggling together.
I put away my weapons as I snuggle close to Luffy and Ace joins in behind me, and the rubber teen instinctively wraps his arm and leg over us while still fast asleep. I just smile fondly as I return it and close my eyes as I feel Ace does the same.
This feels nice.
XXX
Today is the day Ace is finally setting sail into the life of piracy.
And for a parting gift, I'm getting him something from the Town Center.
Wearing my nobility disguise, I enter a boutique store and an employee immediately runs up to me with a mechanical friendly smile. I'm not in the mood for a chat, so I immediately ask her where the headgear section is, which she immediately escorts me there.
Looking around, a certain orange cowboy hat takes my attention.
There it is. The signature orange cowboy hat, minus the red-beaded accessory and the smileys.
I point at it with a smile, "I'll take that."
"O-Of course!"
As the lady grabs the hat and is packing it up in a box, I look at the other hats. Should I get myself one too? Considering the boys got their own. But I'm not a fan of hats and they might hinder my movements while fighting too.
There's sunhat, beret, top hat, and many others that I don't even know the name of. I inspect all of them and only one strikes my fancy. It's just a plain coral pink bucket hat, with some kind of flower crown decoration around it. If I'm not mistaken, the flowers are morning glories and camellias.
"I'll take this as well." I tell the lady and she quickly takes it and about to box it, but I stop her. "It's okay, I'll wear it now. Here's the money." I tell her as I give her a small bag of something for the hats and I grab the hat box.
I wear my new hat and walk out the shop before I sprint off as the employee yells out that I'm stealing the hats. I just laugh and dodge the police that are out to get me before I jump and start to kick the air to float off, watching in amusement as the audiences are all watching me slowly floating in the air with bulging eyes until I stop to land on a roof and run off.
I keep on running until I'm back in the forest. The wind gently blows and I giggle as an answer while running back to the shack, where almost everyone is preparing for Ace's departure. I slam open the door and run inside to approach Luffy and Ace, ignoring Dadan's yelling to stop breaking her doors.
"Hey Eris, where did you go?" Luffy asks before he 'ooooh-ed' when he sees my new hat and I grin at him. "Ooh! Nice hat! Where did you get it?" He asks.
"From town. Stole it." I answer him before offering Ace the box, who accepts it with a brow raised in confusion. "Don't open it yet! I need to add something extra!" I tell him before I run up to my bedroom.
Luffy and Ace built their own hideouts outside of the shack and have been living there since, so the bedroom became mine eventually. Unfortunately I only use it for anything but sleeping, because I always sleep with Luffy and sometimes with Ace too. Sleeping by myself makes the nightmares come.
Grabbing my crafting box, I take out a familiar red-beaded accessory with smileys and I grin at it. I never thought that I would be the one making the trademark accessory for the hat, but when I saw the smileys and the red beads one time in town, I knew I had to do it.
Taking it from the box, I run back out and jump back down to where the boys are. The box is still closed and Ace is pushing Luffy away with his foot as he holds the box away from his reach, telling him to stop joking around.
"It's okay. You can open it now. It's your birthday gift from me to you, after all." I tell him with a smile. Ace immediately kicks Luffy away as he opens the box, his eyes lighting up as he takes out the hat. "Luffy and Sabo got their signature hats, so might as well I get you and myself our own hats." I explain as he looks at it and wears it happily while Luffy is watching it with the same excitement.
"This is awesome! Thanks, Eris!" Ace thanks me with a bright grin. My heart skips a beat and I can only return it with a happy smile. After years of living with them, we're all slowly picking up each other's characteristics and I suppose Ace is picking up Luffy's, which is the best result of all.
"Oi, Eris. You have a weird face right now." Luffy informs me and that snaps me off from my stupor before giving Luffy a hit in the head for calling my face weird and looking back at Ace while ignoring Luffy's pained cries.
"Anyway! Considering that hat looks too empty, I decided to add another thing." I continue as I slip the accessory to the hat with a nod, "Yep, now it looks complete." I say to myself as Ace takes the hat off to see it better. I can even see sparkles on his face and my heart skips a beat again. Ngh, he's so cute. It's like seeing Luffy's double and my heart cannot handle it!
"Oi, Eris. You have that weird face again." Luffy comments again and I hit him again in the head.
"Well, thanks for the hat, Eris! I'll treasure it!" Ace replies with a grin and I return it happily.
"Then! It's my time to give you your gift!" Luffy starts as he takes out something from his back, revealing it to be the familiar green dagger that Ace has on him when he made his debut in the manga. The one thing that Ace doesn't seem to be using but for a memento only.
"Ooh! This looks cool! Thanks, Luffy!" Ace thanks him and Luffy giggles in return.
"No problem!"
Once the preparation is done, the three of us (and the other bandits but Dadan) leave the shack to where Ace docked the given boat and both Mayor and Makino are waiting. He jumps on the boat and turns to look at us with a grin.
"Well then, I'll be off now! Tell Dadan my thanks for everything." Ace announces with a wide smile, "You'll hear some news about me soon enough! And until then, I'll be waiting for you both, Luffy, Eris! We'll meet at the top!" He says.
"Yeah! And we won't lose to you!" Luffy replies and I nod along.
And just like that, Ace finally sets sail, waving his arms at us as his boat slowly sails away until he's far enough that we can't really see his face anymore.
Once Ace is off, Luffy immediately runs off into the forest by himself and I go back to the shack with the bandits while Mayor and Makino go back to Foosha Village.
Once we're back to the shack, I see that Dadan is facing away and busily smoking her life away.
"Oi, Old Lady Dadan. How long are you gonna smoke your life away?" I ask.
"Shut up! I don't need a brat like you to tell me things!" Dadan spats and I roll my eyes.
"Too bad you didn't see Ace off… Oh! He also said to tell you 'thanks for everything', especially for taking care of him for all these years." I tell her with a smile. The last one is not really spoken out loud, but I know Ace enough to know the silent words he gives.
Hearing that, Dadan immediately bawled her eyes out while cursing Ace for that, but I feel no ill will from her, so she just said it because she's Dadan. I just chuckle at that while the bandits are teasing her for crying, which she immediately denies.
Just 3 more years, and then we'll finally set sail. I can't wait to finally write the greatest adventure ever!
The end of One Not Bounded Arc…
…Continued to the first Saga: East Blue Saga.
(a/n: that's the end of the second arc. next chapter will be uploaded in 2 weeks, so july 8th then. it takes more time because each chapter will be over 5k words and i also work a full-time job and my anxiety is making me keep on holding myself down, i hope you'll be patient for it.
until then, we'll meet again!
Posted on June 24, 2022)
